policy requires a fair effort to be made to settle this boundary and to preserve this trade and friendship; and I shall consider all this as remaining just as fully in the mind of the President as if submitted to him in a bill. occurrence, and is worthy to be attended by every circumstance which lends it dignity, promotes its success, and makes it satisfactory. When England and Scotland were united, at the commencement of the last century, no less than thirty-one commissioners were employed to "The bill which I now offer is the same which agree upon the terms; and the terms they I have presented heretofore, divested of its conagreed upon received the sanction of the Parlia-ditions, and committing the subject to the disments of the two kingdoms, and completed a cretion of the President to accomplish the object union which had been in vain attempted for one in the best way that he can, and either negotiato hundred years. Extraordinary missions, na- a treaty to be submitted to the Senate, or to tionally constituted, have several times been re- agree upon articles of union to be submitted to sorted to in our own country, and always with the two Houses of Congress. I deem this the public approbation, whether successful or not. best way of proceeding under every aspect. It The first Mr. Adams sent Marshall, Gerry, and is the safest way; for it will settle all questions Pinckney to the French directory in 1798: Mr. beforehand, and leave no nest-eggs to hatch fuJefferson sent Ellsworth, Davie, and Murray to ture disputes. It is the most speedy way; for the French consular government of 1800: Mr. commissioners conferring face to face will come Madison sent Adams, Bayard, Gallatin, Clay, to conclusions much sooner than two deliberaand Russell to Ghent in 1814. All these mis- tive bodies sitting in two different countries, at sions, and others which might be named, were near two thousand miles apart, and interchanging nationally constituted-composed of eminent categorical propositions in the shape of law. It citizens taken from each political party, and from is the most satisfactory way; for whatever such different sections of the Union; and, of course, a commission should agree upon, would stand all favorable to the object for which they were the best chance to be satisfactory to all parts of employed. An occasion has occurred which, in the Union. It is the most respectful way to my opinion, requires a mission similarly consti- Texas, and the mode for which she has shown tuted-as numerous as the missions to Paris or a decided preference. She has twice sent ento Ghent-and composed of citizens from both voys extraordinary and ministers plenipotenpolitical parties, and from the non-slaveholding tiary here to treat with us; and the actual as well as the slaveholding States. Such a com- President, Mr. Jones, has authentically declared mission could hardly fail to be successful, not his willingness to engage in further negotiations. merely in agreeing upon the terms of the union, Ministers sent to confer and agree to consult but in agreeing upon terms which would be sat- and to harmonize-is much more respectful isfactory to the people and the governments of than the transmission, by mail or messenger, of the two countries. And here, to avoid misap- an inflexible proposition, in the shape of law, to prehension and the appearance of disrespect be accepted or rejected in the precise words in where the contrary is felt, I would say that the which we send it. In every point of view, the gentleman now in Texas as the chargé of the mode which I propose seems to me to be the United States, is, in my opinion, eminently fit | best; and as its execution will devolve upon a and proper to be one of the envoys extraordinary President just elected by the people with a view and ministers plenipotentiary which my bill to this subject, I have no hesitation in trusting contemplates. it to him, armed with full power, and untrammelled with terms and conditions." "In withdrawing from my bill the terms and conditions which had been proposed as a basis of negotiation, I do not withdraw them from the consideration of those who may direct the negotiation. I expect them to be considered, and, as far as judged proper, to be acted on. The compromise principle between slave and non-slaveholding territory is sanctioned by the vote of the House of Representatives, and by the general voice of the country. In withdrawing it from the bill, I do not withdraw it from the consideration of the President: I only leave him free and untrammelled to do the best he It was soon ascertained in the Senate, that the joint resolution from the House could not pass-that unless combined with negotiation, it would be rejected. Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, then proposed to join the two together—the bill of Mr. Benton and the resolution from the House-with a clause referring it to the discretion of the President to act under them as he deemed best. It being then the end of the session, and the new President arrived so as to be "The assent of Mexico to the annexation is ready to act immediately; and it being fully judged to be unnecessary, but no one judges her believed that the execution of the bill was to assent to a new boundary line to be unneces- be left to him, the conjunction was favored by sary: no one judges it unnecessary to preserve her commerce and good will; and, therefore, the author of the bill, and his friends; and the every consideration of self-interest and national proposal of Mr. Walker was agreed to. The can for the harmony of the Union on a delicate and embarrassing point. bill was added as an amendment, and then the whole was passed-although by a close vote27 to 25. The yeas were: Messrs. Allen, Ashley, Atchison, Atherton, Bagby, Benton, Breese, Buchanan, Colquitt, Dickinson, Dix, Fairfield, Hannegan, Haywood, Henderson, Huger, Johnson, Lewis, McDuffie, Merrick, Niles, Semple, Sevier, Sturgeon, Tappan, Walker, Woodbury, -27. The nays were: Messrs. Archer, Barrow, Bates, Bayard, Berrien, Choate, Clayton, Crittenden, Dayton, Evans, Foster, Francis, Huntington, Jarnagin, Mangum, Miller, Morehead, Pearce, Phelps, Porter, Rives, Simmons, Upham, White, Woodbridge-25. The resolve of the House was thus passed in the Senate, and the validity of the Missouri compromise was asserted, and its re-enactment effected in the Senate, as well as in the House. But the amendment required the bill to go back to the House for its concurrence in that particular, which was found to increase the favor of the measure-an addition of thirty-six being added to the affirmative vote. Carried to Mr. Tyler for his approval, or disapproval, it was immediately approved by him, with the hearty concurrence of his Secretary of State (Mr. Calhoun), who even claimed the passage of the measure as a triumph of his own. And so the executive government, in the persons of the President and his cabinet, added their sanction to the validity of the Missouri compromise line, and the full power of Congress which it exercised, to permit or abolish slavery in territories. This was the month of March, 1845—so that a quarter of a century after the establishment of that compromise line, the dogmas of "squatter sovereignty "-"no power in Congress to legislate upon slavery in the territories "—and "the extension of slavery to the territories by the self-expansion of the constitution," had not been invented. The discovery of these dogmas was reserved for a later period, and a more heated state of the public mind. The bill providing for the admission of Texas had undergone all its formalities, and became a law on Saturday, the first day of March; the second was Sunday, and a dies non. Congress met on Monday for the last day of its existence; and great was the astonishment of members to hear that the actual President had assumed the execution of the act providing for the admission of Texas-had adopted the legislative clauseand sent it off by a special messenger for the adoption of Texas. It was then seen that some senators had been cheated out of their votes, and that the passage of the act through the Senate had been procured by a fraud. At least five of the senators who voted affirmatively would have voted against the resolutions of the House, if Mr. Benton's bill had not been added, and if it had not been believed that the execution of the act would be left to the new President, and that he would adopt Mr. Benton's. The possibility of a contrary course had been considered, and, as it was believed, fully guarded against. Several senators and some citizens conversed with Mr. Polk, then in the city, and received his assurance that he would act on Mr. Benton's proposition, and in carrying it into effect would nominate for the negotiation a national commission, composed of safe and able men of both parties, such as Mr. Benton had suggested. Among those who thus conversed with Mr. Polk were two (senator Tappan, of Ohio, and Francis P. Blair, Esq., of Washington City), who published the result of their conversations, and the importance of which requires to be stated in their own words: which is here done. Mr. Tappan, writing to the editors of the New York Evening Post, says: terms on which Congress will admit Texas into "When the joint resolution declaring the the Union as a State, was before the Senate, it was soon found that a number of the democratic members who were favorable to the admission of Texas, would vote against that resolution. I was one of them. In this stage of the matter it was proposed, that instead of rejecting the House resolution, we should amend it by adding, as an alternative proposition, the substance of Mr. Benton's bill to obtain Texas by negotiation. that he was very anxious that Congress should Mr. Polk was in the city; it was understood act on the subject before he came into office; it was also understood that the proposition to Polk. It had been suggested, that, if we did so amend the House resolution originated with Mr. amend the resolution, Mr. Calhoun would send off the House resolution to Texas, and so endeavor to forestall the action of Mr. Polk; but Mr. McDuffie, his friend, having met this sughave the audacity' to do such a thing, it was gestion by the declaration that he would not no more thought of. One difficulty remained, and that was the danger of putting it into the power of Mr. Polk to submit the House resolution to Texas. We understood, indeed, that he intended to submit the Senate proposition to that government; but, without being satisfied that he would do this, I would not vote for the resolution, and it was well ascertained that, without my vote, it could not pass. Mr. Haywood, who had voted with me, and was opposed to the House resolution, undertook to converse with Mr. Polk on the subject, and did so. He afterwards told me that he was authorized by Mr. Polk to say to myself and other senators, that, if we could pass the resolution with the amendment proposed to be made, he would not use the House resolution, but would submit the Senate amendment as the sole proposition to Texas. Upon this assurance I voted for the amendment moved by Mr. Walker, containing the substance of Mr. Benton's bill, and voted for the resolution as it now stands on the statute book." Mr. Francis P. Blair, in a letter addressed to Mr. Tappan, and conversing with Mr. Polk at a different time, gives his statement to the same effect: "When the resolution passed by the House of Representatives for the annexation of Texas reached the Senate, it was ascertained that it would fail in that body. Benton, Bagby, Dix, Haywood, and as I understood, you also, were opposed to this naked proposition of annexation, which necessarily brought with it the war in which Texas was engaged with Mexico. All had determined to adhere to the bill submitted by Col. Benton, for the appointment of a commission to arrange the terms of annexation with Texas, and to make the attempt to render its accession to our Union as palatable as possible to Mexico before its consummation. It was hoped that this point might be effected by giving (as has been done in the late treaty of peace) a pecuniary consideration, fully equivalent in value for the territory desired by the United States, and to which Texas could justly assert any title. The Senate had been polled, and it was ascertained that any two of the democratic senators who were opposed to Brown's resolution, which had passed the House, could defeat it-the whole whig party preferring annexation by negotiation, upon Col. Benton's plan, to that of Brown. While the question was thus pending, I met Mr. Brown (late Governor of Tennessee, then a member of the House), who suggested that the resolution of the House, and the bill of Col. Benton, preferred by the Senate, might be blended, making the latter an alternative, and leaving the President elect (who alone would have time to consummate the measure), to act under one or the other at his discretion. I told Mr. Brown that I did not believe that the democratic senators opposed to the resolution of the House, and who had its fate in their hands, would consent to this arrangement, unless they were satisfied in advance by Mr. Polk that the commission and negotiation contemplated in Col. Benton's plan would be tried, before that of direct legislative annexation was resorted to. He desired me to see Colonel Benton and the friends of his proposition, submit the suggestions he had made, and then confer with Mr. Polk to know whether he would meet their views. I complied; and after several interviews with Messrs. Haywood, Dix, Benton, and others (Mr. Allen, of Ohio, using his influence in the same direction), finding that the two plans could be coupled and carried, if it were understood that the pacific project was first to be tried, I consulted the President elect on the subject. In the conference I had with him, he gave me full assurance that he would appoint a commission, as contemplated in the bill prepared by Col. Benton, if passed in conjunction with the House resolution as an alternative. In the course of my conversation with Mr. Polk, I told him that the friends of this plan were solicitous that the commission should be filled by distinguished men of both parties, and that Colonel Benton had mentioned to me the names of Crittenden and Wright, as of the class from which it should be formed. Mr. Polk responded, by declaring with an emphasis, that the first men of the country should fill the commission.' I communicated the result of this interview to Messrs. Benton, Dix, Haywood, &c. The two last met, on appointment, to adapt the phraseology of Benton's bill, to suit as an alternative for the resolution of the House, and it was passed, after a very general understanding of the course which the measure was to take. Both Messrs. Dix and Haywood told me they had interviews with Mr. Polk on the subject of the communication I had reported to them from him, and they were confirmed by his immediate assurance in pursuing the course which they had resolved on in consequence of my representation of his purpose in regard to the point on which their action depended. After the law was passed, and Mr. Polk inaugurated, he applied to Gen. Dix (as I am informed by the latter), to urge the Senate to act upon one of the suspended cabinet appointments, saying that he wished his administration organized immediately, as he intended the instant recall of the messenger understood to have been despatched by Mr. Tyler, and to revoke his orders given in the last moments of his power, to thwart the design of Congress in affording him (Mr. Polk) the means of instituting a negotiation, with a view of bringing Texas peaceably into the Union." All this was perfectly satisfactory with respect to the President elect; but there might be some danger from the actual President, or rather, from Mr. Calhoun, his Secretary of State, and who had over Mr. Tyler that ascendant which it is the prerogative of genius to exercise over inferior minds. This danger was suggested in debate in open Senate. It was repulsed as an by a deception, and by deluding five senators out of their votes. It was not a barren fraud, but one prolific of evil, and pregnant with bloody fruit. It established, so far as the United States was concerned, the state of war with Mexico: it only wanted the acceptance of Texas to make war the complete legal con impossible infamy. Such a cheat upon senators, and such an encroachment upon the rights of the new President, were accounted among the impossibilities: and Mr. McDuffie, a close and generous friend of Mr. Calhoun, speaking for the administration, and replying to the suggestion that they might seize upon the act, and execute it without regard to the Senate's amend-dition of the two countries: and that temptament, not only denied it for them, but repulsed tion to Texas was too great to be resisted. it in terms which implied criminality if they She desired annexation any way: and the gov did. He said they would not have the "auda- ernment of the United States having broken up city" to do it. Mr. McDuffie was an honorable the armistice, and thwarted the peace prospects, man, standing close to Mr. Calhoun; and al- and brought upon her the danger of a new inthough he did not assume to speak by authority, vasion, she leaped at the chance of throwing the yet his indignant repulse of the suggestion was burden of the war on the United States. The entirely satisfactory, and left the misgiving | legislative proposition sent by Mr. Tyler was senators released from apprehension on account accepted: Texas became incorporated with the of Mr. Tyler's possible conduct. Mr. Robert J. Walker also, who had moved the conjunction of the two measures, and who was confidential both with the coming in and going out President, assisted in allaying apprehension in the reason he gave for opposing an amendment offered by Mr. Ephraim H. Foster, of Tennessee, which, looking to the President's adoption of the negotiating clause, required that he should make a certain "stipulation" in relation to slavery, and another in relation to the public debt. Mr. Walker objected to this proposition, saying it was already in the bill," and if the President proceeded properly in the negotiation he would act upon it." This seemed to be authoritative that negotiation was to be the mode, and consequently that Mr. Benton's plan was to be adopted. Thus quieted in their ap-junct, now became independent of him, and prehensions, five senators voted for the act of admission, who would not otherwise have done so; and any two of whom voting against it would have defeated it. Mr. Polk did not despatch a messenger to recall Mr. Tyler's envoy; and that omission was the only point of complaint against him. Mr. McDuffie stood exempt from all blame, known to be an honorable man speaking from a generous impulsion. Thus was Texas incorporated into the Union United States: by that incorporation the state of war-the status belli-was established between the United States and Mexico: and it only became a question of time and chance, when hostilities were to begin. Mr. Calhoun, though the master spirit over Mr. Tyler, and the active power in sending off the proposition to Texas, was not in favor of war, and still believed, as he did when he made the treaty, that the weakness of Mexico, and a douceur of ten millions in money, would make her submit: but there was another interest all along working with him, and now to supersede him in influence, which was for war, not as an object, but as a means-as a means of getting a treaty providing for claims and indemnities, and territorial acquisitions. This interest, long his ad pushed for the war; but it was his conduct that enabled this party to act; and this point became one of earnest debate between himself and Mr. Benton the year afterwards; in which he was charged as being the real author of the war; and in which Mr. Benton's speech being entirely historical, becomes a condensed view of the whole Texas annexation question; and as such, is presented in the next chapter. 1 ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES K. POLK. CHAPTER CXLIX. Grande if I had been consulted. Nor do I see how any opinion adverse to the President's was to have the effect of lessening his influence in THE WAR WITH MEXICO: ITS CAUSE: CHARGED the settlement of the Oregon question. That ON THE CONDUCT OF MR. CALHOUN: MR. question was settled by us, not by the President. Half the democratic senators went conMR. BENTON: The senator from South Caro- trary to the President's opinion, and none of lina (Mr. Calhoun) has boldly made the issue them lost influence with him on that account; as to the authorship of this war, and as boldly and so I can see no possible connection between thrown the blame of it upon the present admin- the facts of the case and the senator's reason istration. On the contrary, I believe himself for not interfering to save his country from the to be the author of it, and will give a part of my war which, he says, he saw. His reason to me reasons for believing so. In saying this, I do is unintelligible, incomprehensible, unconnectanot consider the march to the Rio Grande to ble with the facts of the case. But the march have been the cause of the war, any more than on the Rio Grande was not the cause of the I consider the British march upon Concord and war; but the causes of this event, like the Lexington to have been the cause of the Ameri- causes of our own revolutionary war, were in can Revolution, or the crossing of the Rubicon progress long before hostilities broke out. The by Cæsar to have been the cause of the civil causes of this Mexican war were long anterior war in Rome. In all these cases, I consider the to this march; and, in fact, every circumstance causes of war as pre-existing, and the marches of war then existed, except the actual collision as only the effect of these causes. I consider of arms. Diplomatic intercourse had ceased; the march upon the Rio Grande as being un- commerce was destroyed; fleets and armies fortunate, and certainly should have advised confronted each other; treaties were declared against it if I had been consulted, and that to be broken; the contingency had occurred in without the least fear of diminishing my influ- which Mexico had denounced the existence of ence in the settlement of the Oregon question war; the incorporation of Texas, with a Mexi-a fear which the senator from South Carolina can war on her hands, had produced, in legal says prevented him from interposing to prevent contemplation, the status belli between the two the war which he foresaw. My opinion of Mr. countries: and all this had occurred before the Polk-and experience in that very Oregon case march upon the Rio Grande, and before the has confirmed it-did not authorize me to con- commencement of this administration, and had jecture that any one would lose influence with produced a state of things which it was imposhim by giving him honest opinions; so I would sible to continue, and which could only receive have advised against the march to the Rio their solution from arms or negotiation. The |